As a final straw to grasp- those little guys in the black pajamas defeated the most powerful military in the world. And if that isn't grasping at straws...
Greg - I come back to these two poems frequently as they inform me what we are going through as a nation. I post them here for your readers who may not recognize your references.
Dylan Thomas:
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
The Second Coming
By William Butler Yeats
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Thanks, excellent piece. To me fascism is anti, not for anything. Fascists essentially are against the status quo, in particular common sense and decency. They are petty, weak individuals who think the world is against them. They loathe everyone and everything, including themselves. Lashing out, mindlessly mostly, is their remedy. Think one Stephen Miller, fascism's poster boy
As for stage five, we are at the doorstep, hand on the doorknob.There is much darkness but a very few glimmers of light pierce the darkness. I wrote weekly to my Senator, Thom Tillis. I have no idea if he ever read one word of my letters but was so pleased to see him push back on the BBB. Not only did he vote no, he also schooled his fellow Republicans on the evils of the bill in respect of its impact on healthcare. It appears all for nought but one Senator, at least for the time being focused his mind on constituents vs the cult. If his efforts have any impact it is important to embolden others, especially the very weak Collins of Maine to think twice before casting a thumbs up/ down vote.
Small steps hopefully will lead to a stampede for Democracy.
I think that, paradoxically, we have to go a bit further down the path before a critical mass of Americans figures it out and starts fighting back in earnest. Good on Tillis. I think Collins and Markowski draw straws to see which one of them gets to vote on the proper side for all of these close votes.
Awoke in London to see just how right you are, Susan no, Lisa yes. The latter's justification, I got good things for Alaska. What she doesn't say, fuck the rest of the country. Bipartisanship is supposed to work for the bulk of our countrymen, not just your 740,000 (0.2% of total peoples), hell with the other 339.2 million, that is unilateralism and selfish to the extreme. Her oath is to We the People, not We the People of Alaska. Yet Kaizen is needed, slow steps all the time. Mikey J. will stuff the Senate version done the throat of his conference, ensuring the orange imbecile gets his July 4th photo op and domination of the news cycle. Will spend the 4th in Blighty, celebrating not things US, rather only child's 45th birthday while the search continues for a new home in the country that has just adopted us.
Why are people so fucking nuts? How do they get that way? Not enough hugs from mom and dad? How did we get from the now laughable corruption of the 70s and 80s to THIS? These are some of the questions I ponder while thinking about the people involved in this fascist takeover of the United States. As I write this, our local community is testing its tornado/air raid sirens as they do on the first Tuesday of every month at 10:30. Is that a sound we should be listening for in the future on other days besides testing day? And if so, who will be in the skies?
I'm reading a book that contains the following passage: “Never to admit a fault or wrong; never to accept blame; concentrate on one enemy at a time; blame that enemy for everything that goes wrong; take advantage of every opportunity to raise a political whirlwind.” Most THINKING people would immediately identify that as a description of Trump, but it's not. It's from a 1943 report commissioned by the US Strategic Services, describing Hitler's strategy in his power grab of Germany's Chancellorship. It goes on: "What are the real tools of war? Not only physical violence but rhetorical violence. Soon hyperbole, extremism, defamation, and slander become commonplace and acceptable vehicles of power." Yeah, no shit!
The book is, "The Betrayal of Anne Frank," which attempts to treat the discovery, arrest, and death of Anne Frank and most of her family as a cold case, in which researchers try to find WHO betrayed them to the Nazis after hiding in the Annex for 25 months.
I also have to wonder but can probably never know unless reincarnation with a solid memory of the previous life is a thing, whether in 50 or 100 years, MAGA and Trump et al, will be described like we now talk about the Nazis of WW II. This is probably the first time in my life I've ever wanted to see what the actual future of historical books and movies holds. I will safely assume, as have others, that history will not be kind to these times, in which we all seemed to go a little nuts -- and yes, we'll be swept up in the very broad brush of history too, MUCH to my chagrin! "The American people elected this fucking asshole back into office a second time in 2024, even after his first disastrous term starting in 2017, ended in his defeat in 2020." See? Gross!
Thanks, Steve. That book sounds very good but also hard to read.
It is no accident that fascism was only able to rise after the invention of mass media. Mussolini used radio, Hitler used film, and Trump has social media, an exponentially more useful tool. It takes so much effort to learn about all this stuff, how to spot disinfo, all of that, how to read articles, how to parse words and find truth. I have been doing this actively for, what, nine years now, and I still fuck up. I still fall for things. I still take the bait and get "triggered" (the Alligator Alcatraz is a perfect emotional trigger for them). How can people who have no idea they're even being manipulated ever hope to know the truth? And a solid percentage of people are hateful. In Germany then, as in the US now.
I hope there ARE history books in the future, and we're not all living in caves, fending off radioactive bears.
I have been recommending Eco's piece for forever. It seems to me that the definition is both a syndrome and a spectrum. The parts that strike me as pretty much necessary but not always sufficient are demonization of the Other, ultra nationalism, and assorted mechanisms to control what people THINK. That includes both the blatant lies--he heavy use of irrational propaganda--, and the actual "policing" of thought with a special 'police" outside the normal work of cops.
I realized at about age 13 that Communism (in practice, though not in theory) and Fascism meet at their farther ends. The main difference to me lies in the Demonization part. Communism "demonizes" capitalism in the abstract: that's part of its theory. But Fascism chooses particular Others to demonize--the theory involves demonization itself; the target is whatever works best with a particular populace. Communism can be ultra nationalist and clearly uses the mechanisms to control thought--the Stasi were as bad as the Gestapo.
Basically, Communism develops Fascistic qualities because it requires that kind of power to cow a population into accepting an ideology that touts equality but doesn't actually produce it. Fascism is more the naked search for power, and punitive in both theory AND practice. It is more amendable to oligarchy. For communism, oligarchy is a bug in the theory; for fascism, it's a feature.
And yep, most of the other stuff you mention is present more or less strongly in fascism.
Thanks for this, Susan. I feel like Communism -- of the Stalin/Mao variety; not actual communism -- is tyranny with an intellectual underpinning. Fascism is just dumb bullies breaking stuff. But in the end, they are all bullies, responsible for untold death and suffering.
Mussolini was killed by Italian Resistance, in this case communist partisans, while he and his party was attempting to flee to Switzerland as Italy was falling in Allied hands. They were taken to a local village and shot. Then the bodies were taken to Milan, where they were abused in general and then hung up for everyone one to see. The resultant photograph reveals one of those common moments when dictatorial power comes to an end. I've seen this photo for decades...it's a shame it isn't better known. It's a possibility that it can be 'reworked' as a cautionary tale.
The key photo is the middle one. For our government to remember: Mussolini did not go alone. He and his lover, his comrades, all were unceremonious shot, just like that.
Are the Stephen Millers listening? There is a serious price for what you are doing. If alligators aren't to your taste, realize boa constrictors have eaten all the other mammals in the Everglades.
As a special note, you can buy a print of the original for $1,000 today. Nice to know it still holds some value.
I prefer the photo of the Lincoln Collaborators hanging. But the point is the same. No one is, or should be, spared when retribution comes. Putin was said to be freaked out when he saw video of Gaddafi's death. Good. I hope I live long enough to see it.
Terrific piece. If I had to pick out an element of fascism to point out, it would be this one.
On June 18th (Juneteenth Eve) the president called a press event. The event was not to wish everyone well as they celebrated their freedoms through a nice day off in observance of the federal holiday.
Instead, he called the press together to celebrate the installation of two 88 foot poles on the north and south lawn of the White House. (Yes, there already a flag pole on top of the White House, with a flag and everything). Funny enough, the Anti Defamation League hate speech database associates 88 with white suoremacists’ affection for the 8th letter of the alphabet. Representing HH or H@il Hitl@r.
Anyway, as a bonus he let the gathered reporters know that he recently heard from an unnamed source at Treasury that the country has received $88 BILLION in revenue they didn’t even expect. He thinks it must be from tariffs.
What a coincidence. Everything is comping up 88! How cool!
He also explained, for no apparent reason, that he used his own funds to put up these special new poles.
He further confessed that even though he had wanted to do this for a LONG TIME, he could put these poles up now because in this administration he is now “THE HUNTER”.
Once they were installed, he raised US flags on them and saluted them.
In the context of a flooded zone, NOBODY WROTE ABOUT THIS as anything other than a nice story about newly donated flag poles. Although the Right Side Business Network in the press pool did think it was all funny enough to name their link to the story “EATMY8”. Whee!
Are we fascists yet when HH is represented in every live shot of the White House and nobody calls it out except a saluting cult member in a basement and nobody highlights or makes an effort to pull them out of the ground immediately?
One might think the ADL might have been one to notice and call this out, but they may also have been distracted by the fact that our new strong man figure was in the process of deciding to drop bombs on Israel’s arch-enemy in the moment. Alas. If noticed, not the right time to complain maybe.
Anyway, here are some links to the story, so you can decide for yourselves if there really is a fascist dog whistle to the base on the white house lawn since Juneteenth, or if it’s all just a funny kind of coincidence.
PS - In 1775, the redcoats used to cut down freedom poles planted by the Sons of Liberty and chop them up with passion, followed by burning them for firewood, whenever they had a chance.
LB has been talking about the significance of the numbers 14, 88, and 1488 for almost a decade. Media has still not caught on. That was also the press conference where he joked if the workers installing the flagpoles were illegal immigrants, and then said they were going to "e-word" the poles, but he didn't want to say the "e-word."
Thanks for breaking it down...these moments, innocuous as they seem, are very important, especially to THEIR side, which likes to smirk at the inside Nazi references.
He is such a 12-year-old child! I saw that "press event" too and thought about how he's supposed to be this big construction mogul who would use the "e-word" all the time. Did he giggle after each time he said it? I write audits all the time where I have to use the e-word in descriptions of what construction companies do. I have to wonder what the reaction would be on the other end if I started writing sentences like, "Acme Construction Inc specializes in e-wording residential units of less than three stories in height." So ridiculous for a supposed adult to be simping about.
Great summary, though frightening. A diagnosis seems to be missing; one in which all the fascist leaders seem to exhibit. They are all psychopaths.
From Dr. Bandy Lee, 6/24 Substack: Psychopaths intentionally create harm to others without guilt or remorse, for personal gain or self-gratification. That gratification often includes the sadistic pleasure of wreaking revenge against imagined enemies. Psychopaths cannot be reasoned out of their beliefs or their behavior, because they are unable to comprehend that others have value, or the concept of questioning themselves. The fact that Donald Trump has this most dangerous form of Antisocial Personality Disorder has two long-term consequences: It means that he is never going to stop intentionally harming others for his personal benefit, and it means that he will become worse over time.
With his use of the Big Lie technique, attacks on minorities and immigrants, and claims that only he can save America, Trump has shown that he is following the very same plan as Hitler and other truly evil dictators in human history. Beyond lawbreaking, lying, cheating, and the absence of conscience, psychopaths are known for their long-term planning to intentionally harm others. Fascism = the system of harm and anti-social structures employed by psychopaths.
Thanks, Eileen. Yes: She's been writing about this a long time now, and was right years ago and remains so. The video of Trump, Noem, DeSantis snickering about alligators in their new concentration camp? All psychopaths.
First, and foremost, as a war refugee/immigrant, a naturalized citizen since the 50’s I personally have a special interest in the state of democracy.
I vowed to never let myself die in tyranny but I’m afraid I will not be able to fulfill that since the speed of it rearing its ugly head is fast outpacing my demise… but who knows, we’ll see.
I’m searching for national HEROES and HEROINES to appear out of nowhere to come to our rescue. I know they’re out there but it seems that hasn’t happened yet. Right now We The People are the stand-ins. A force is building and pretty soon we’ll see people in the streets and something akin to a national strike… things that Trump fears. It’s inevitable.
Yesterday we saw a Senator being bought and controlled for a vote. A sheep who couldn’t explain herself out of a paper bag. Someone who was once admired is now a traitor to the cause. She could have been a Heroine.
Greg, your piece was exquisitely put together so we clearly understand the roots of this decay. This should be read by everyone. A definite RESTACK!
Thanks, Gundy. Because of the stupid bill, taxpayer funds will be diverted from Medicaid to hiring more ICE Gestapo to round up naturalized US citizens to fill the concentration camps. I can't believe I just typed that sentence. Good lord.
Great blog! We're not going quietly...
DeSantis diverts $400 million in FEMA funds to build Alligator Alcatraz as hurricane season starts. Mapping the Trump fascist scheme.
https://thedemlabs.org/2025/06/28/desantis-diverts-400-million-fema-funds-alligator-alcatraz-hurricane-season-map/
Animal Farm by George Orwell perfectly describes life in the Trump era. Read the book or listen to this 12 min podcast.
https://thedemlabs.org/2025/01/10/maga-animal-farm-podcast/
@DoNotTurnOnUs: Organizing civilians, veterans and active duty military to refuse fascist orders
https://thedemlabs.org/2025/04/30/donotturnonus-organizing-civilians-veterans-and-active-duty-military-to-refuse-fascist-orders/
Who’s Trump Demonizing Next? Check the Fascist Project 2025 Playbook.
https://thedemlabs.org/2024/10/14/trump-demonizes-immigrants-minorities-fascist-project-2025-playbook/
Great work, Deepak!
I wish I didn’t fully agree with you, but only those wearing blinders cannot. I will not go quietly .
It gives me no pleasure to write this, believe me...
Great essay Greg. Your distillation is excellent. Thank you!
Thanks, John!
As a final straw to grasp- those little guys in the black pajamas defeated the most powerful military in the world. And if that isn't grasping at straws...
Hey, at least the straws are plastic again!
Greg - I come back to these two poems frequently as they inform me what we are going through as a nation. I post them here for your readers who may not recognize your references.
Dylan Thomas:
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
The Second Coming
By William Butler Yeats
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
Thanks. I had the Thomas one in my head, too, at the end of this. And of course I love Yeats.
The Second Coming….. my all-time favorite poem, for what’s always just behind the shadows.
Thanks, excellent piece. To me fascism is anti, not for anything. Fascists essentially are against the status quo, in particular common sense and decency. They are petty, weak individuals who think the world is against them. They loathe everyone and everything, including themselves. Lashing out, mindlessly mostly, is their remedy. Think one Stephen Miller, fascism's poster boy
As for stage five, we are at the doorstep, hand on the doorknob.There is much darkness but a very few glimmers of light pierce the darkness. I wrote weekly to my Senator, Thom Tillis. I have no idea if he ever read one word of my letters but was so pleased to see him push back on the BBB. Not only did he vote no, he also schooled his fellow Republicans on the evils of the bill in respect of its impact on healthcare. It appears all for nought but one Senator, at least for the time being focused his mind on constituents vs the cult. If his efforts have any impact it is important to embolden others, especially the very weak Collins of Maine to think twice before casting a thumbs up/ down vote.
Small steps hopefully will lead to a stampede for Democracy.
I think that, paradoxically, we have to go a bit further down the path before a critical mass of Americans figures it out and starts fighting back in earnest. Good on Tillis. I think Collins and Markowski draw straws to see which one of them gets to vote on the proper side for all of these close votes.
bring on the stampede!
Awoke in London to see just how right you are, Susan no, Lisa yes. The latter's justification, I got good things for Alaska. What she doesn't say, fuck the rest of the country. Bipartisanship is supposed to work for the bulk of our countrymen, not just your 740,000 (0.2% of total peoples), hell with the other 339.2 million, that is unilateralism and selfish to the extreme. Her oath is to We the People, not We the People of Alaska. Yet Kaizen is needed, slow steps all the time. Mikey J. will stuff the Senate version done the throat of his conference, ensuring the orange imbecile gets his July 4th photo op and domination of the news cycle. Will spend the 4th in Blighty, celebrating not things US, rather only child's 45th birthday while the search continues for a new home in the country that has just adopted us.
Why are people so fucking nuts? How do they get that way? Not enough hugs from mom and dad? How did we get from the now laughable corruption of the 70s and 80s to THIS? These are some of the questions I ponder while thinking about the people involved in this fascist takeover of the United States. As I write this, our local community is testing its tornado/air raid sirens as they do on the first Tuesday of every month at 10:30. Is that a sound we should be listening for in the future on other days besides testing day? And if so, who will be in the skies?
I'm reading a book that contains the following passage: “Never to admit a fault or wrong; never to accept blame; concentrate on one enemy at a time; blame that enemy for everything that goes wrong; take advantage of every opportunity to raise a political whirlwind.” Most THINKING people would immediately identify that as a description of Trump, but it's not. It's from a 1943 report commissioned by the US Strategic Services, describing Hitler's strategy in his power grab of Germany's Chancellorship. It goes on: "What are the real tools of war? Not only physical violence but rhetorical violence. Soon hyperbole, extremism, defamation, and slander become commonplace and acceptable vehicles of power." Yeah, no shit!
The book is, "The Betrayal of Anne Frank," which attempts to treat the discovery, arrest, and death of Anne Frank and most of her family as a cold case, in which researchers try to find WHO betrayed them to the Nazis after hiding in the Annex for 25 months.
I also have to wonder but can probably never know unless reincarnation with a solid memory of the previous life is a thing, whether in 50 or 100 years, MAGA and Trump et al, will be described like we now talk about the Nazis of WW II. This is probably the first time in my life I've ever wanted to see what the actual future of historical books and movies holds. I will safely assume, as have others, that history will not be kind to these times, in which we all seemed to go a little nuts -- and yes, we'll be swept up in the very broad brush of history too, MUCH to my chagrin! "The American people elected this fucking asshole back into office a second time in 2024, even after his first disastrous term starting in 2017, ended in his defeat in 2020." See? Gross!
NOT going quietly!
Thanks, Steve. That book sounds very good but also hard to read.
It is no accident that fascism was only able to rise after the invention of mass media. Mussolini used radio, Hitler used film, and Trump has social media, an exponentially more useful tool. It takes so much effort to learn about all this stuff, how to spot disinfo, all of that, how to read articles, how to parse words and find truth. I have been doing this actively for, what, nine years now, and I still fuck up. I still fall for things. I still take the bait and get "triggered" (the Alligator Alcatraz is a perfect emotional trigger for them). How can people who have no idea they're even being manipulated ever hope to know the truth? And a solid percentage of people are hateful. In Germany then, as in the US now.
I hope there ARE history books in the future, and we're not all living in caves, fending off radioactive bears.
What can I say? You’ve laid it out in all its ugliness, and I have nothing to add.
Thanks, Earl.
The Scream- Edvard Munch! Thank you Greg. Excellent article.
Oh, totally. Thanks, Sara.
I have been recommending Eco's piece for forever. It seems to me that the definition is both a syndrome and a spectrum. The parts that strike me as pretty much necessary but not always sufficient are demonization of the Other, ultra nationalism, and assorted mechanisms to control what people THINK. That includes both the blatant lies--he heavy use of irrational propaganda--, and the actual "policing" of thought with a special 'police" outside the normal work of cops.
I realized at about age 13 that Communism (in practice, though not in theory) and Fascism meet at their farther ends. The main difference to me lies in the Demonization part. Communism "demonizes" capitalism in the abstract: that's part of its theory. But Fascism chooses particular Others to demonize--the theory involves demonization itself; the target is whatever works best with a particular populace. Communism can be ultra nationalist and clearly uses the mechanisms to control thought--the Stasi were as bad as the Gestapo.
Basically, Communism develops Fascistic qualities because it requires that kind of power to cow a population into accepting an ideology that touts equality but doesn't actually produce it. Fascism is more the naked search for power, and punitive in both theory AND practice. It is more amendable to oligarchy. For communism, oligarchy is a bug in the theory; for fascism, it's a feature.
And yep, most of the other stuff you mention is present more or less strongly in fascism.
Thanks for this, Susan. I feel like Communism -- of the Stalin/Mao variety; not actual communism -- is tyranny with an intellectual underpinning. Fascism is just dumb bullies breaking stuff. But in the end, they are all bullies, responsible for untold death and suffering.
It’s TUESDAY! Make those plans and signs for 7/4 and 7/17 rallies!
Boom!
Mussolini was killed by Italian Resistance, in this case communist partisans, while he and his party was attempting to flee to Switzerland as Italy was falling in Allied hands. They were taken to a local village and shot. Then the bodies were taken to Milan, where they were abused in general and then hung up for everyone one to see. The resultant photograph reveals one of those common moments when dictatorial power comes to an end. I've seen this photo for decades...it's a shame it isn't better known. It's a possibility that it can be 'reworked' as a cautionary tale.
The key photo is the middle one. For our government to remember: Mussolini did not go alone. He and his lover, his comrades, all were unceremonious shot, just like that.
Are the Stephen Millers listening? There is a serious price for what you are doing. If alligators aren't to your taste, realize boa constrictors have eaten all the other mammals in the Everglades.
As a special note, you can buy a print of the original for $1,000 today. Nice to know it still holds some value.
https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ftsa&q=photo+of+Mussilini+hanging+in+Milan&atb=v445-1&ia=images&iax=images
I prefer the photo of the Lincoln Collaborators hanging. But the point is the same. No one is, or should be, spared when retribution comes. Putin was said to be freaked out when he saw video of Gaddafi's death. Good. I hope I live long enough to see it.
Terrific piece. If I had to pick out an element of fascism to point out, it would be this one.
On June 18th (Juneteenth Eve) the president called a press event. The event was not to wish everyone well as they celebrated their freedoms through a nice day off in observance of the federal holiday.
Instead, he called the press together to celebrate the installation of two 88 foot poles on the north and south lawn of the White House. (Yes, there already a flag pole on top of the White House, with a flag and everything). Funny enough, the Anti Defamation League hate speech database associates 88 with white suoremacists’ affection for the 8th letter of the alphabet. Representing HH or H@il Hitl@r.
https://www.adl.org/resources/hate-symbol/88
What a coincidence. . .
Anyway, as a bonus he let the gathered reporters know that he recently heard from an unnamed source at Treasury that the country has received $88 BILLION in revenue they didn’t even expect. He thinks it must be from tariffs.
What a coincidence. Everything is comping up 88! How cool!
He also explained, for no apparent reason, that he used his own funds to put up these special new poles.
He further confessed that even though he had wanted to do this for a LONG TIME, he could put these poles up now because in this administration he is now “THE HUNTER”.
Once they were installed, he raised US flags on them and saluted them.
In the context of a flooded zone, NOBODY WROTE ABOUT THIS as anything other than a nice story about newly donated flag poles. Although the Right Side Business Network in the press pool did think it was all funny enough to name their link to the story “EATMY8”. Whee!
Are we fascists yet when HH is represented in every live shot of the White House and nobody calls it out except a saluting cult member in a basement and nobody highlights or makes an effort to pull them out of the ground immediately?
One might think the ADL might have been one to notice and call this out, but they may also have been distracted by the fact that our new strong man figure was in the process of deciding to drop bombs on Israel’s arch-enemy in the moment. Alas. If noticed, not the right time to complain maybe.
Anyway, here are some links to the story, so you can decide for yourselves if there really is a fascist dog whistle to the base on the white house lawn since Juneteenth, or if it’s all just a funny kind of coincidence.
USA Today - 88’ Flag Pole celebration
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/06/18/trump-flag-poles-white-house/84257902007/
RSBN - EatMy8 YouTube link - 88 press event
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Voie0EATMY8
PS - In 1775, the redcoats used to cut down freedom poles planted by the Sons of Liberty and chop them up with passion, followed by burning them for firewood, whenever they had a chance.
LB has been talking about the significance of the numbers 14, 88, and 1488 for almost a decade. Media has still not caught on. That was also the press conference where he joked if the workers installing the flagpoles were illegal immigrants, and then said they were going to "e-word" the poles, but he didn't want to say the "e-word."
Thanks for breaking it down...these moments, innocuous as they seem, are very important, especially to THEIR side, which likes to smirk at the inside Nazi references.
He is such a 12-year-old child! I saw that "press event" too and thought about how he's supposed to be this big construction mogul who would use the "e-word" all the time. Did he giggle after each time he said it? I write audits all the time where I have to use the e-word in descriptions of what construction companies do. I have to wonder what the reaction would be on the other end if I started writing sentences like, "Acme Construction Inc specializes in e-wording residential units of less than three stories in height." So ridiculous for a supposed adult to be simping about.
Great summary, though frightening. A diagnosis seems to be missing; one in which all the fascist leaders seem to exhibit. They are all psychopaths.
From Dr. Bandy Lee, 6/24 Substack: Psychopaths intentionally create harm to others without guilt or remorse, for personal gain or self-gratification. That gratification often includes the sadistic pleasure of wreaking revenge against imagined enemies. Psychopaths cannot be reasoned out of their beliefs or their behavior, because they are unable to comprehend that others have value, or the concept of questioning themselves. The fact that Donald Trump has this most dangerous form of Antisocial Personality Disorder has two long-term consequences: It means that he is never going to stop intentionally harming others for his personal benefit, and it means that he will become worse over time.
With his use of the Big Lie technique, attacks on minorities and immigrants, and claims that only he can save America, Trump has shown that he is following the very same plan as Hitler and other truly evil dictators in human history. Beyond lawbreaking, lying, cheating, and the absence of conscience, psychopaths are known for their long-term planning to intentionally harm others. Fascism = the system of harm and anti-social structures employed by psychopaths.
Thanks, Eileen. Yes: She's been writing about this a long time now, and was right years ago and remains so. The video of Trump, Noem, DeSantis snickering about alligators in their new concentration camp? All psychopaths.
"Willkommen, bienvenue, welcome!"
First, and foremost, as a war refugee/immigrant, a naturalized citizen since the 50’s I personally have a special interest in the state of democracy.
I vowed to never let myself die in tyranny but I’m afraid I will not be able to fulfill that since the speed of it rearing its ugly head is fast outpacing my demise… but who knows, we’ll see.
I’m searching for national HEROES and HEROINES to appear out of nowhere to come to our rescue. I know they’re out there but it seems that hasn’t happened yet. Right now We The People are the stand-ins. A force is building and pretty soon we’ll see people in the streets and something akin to a national strike… things that Trump fears. It’s inevitable.
Yesterday we saw a Senator being bought and controlled for a vote. A sheep who couldn’t explain herself out of a paper bag. Someone who was once admired is now a traitor to the cause. She could have been a Heroine.
Greg, your piece was exquisitely put together so we clearly understand the roots of this decay. This should be read by everyone. A definite RESTACK!
Thanks, Gundy. Because of the stupid bill, taxpayer funds will be diverted from Medicaid to hiring more ICE Gestapo to round up naturalized US citizens to fill the concentration camps. I can't believe I just typed that sentence. Good lord.